Arch Linux

riveravaldez

Member

Registered: 2016-11-18

Posts: 27

[SOLVED] Only some versions of Firefox have sound (no-pulseaudio)

Hi,

I've been downgrading firefox package because some versions play sound but other versions don't.

I don't have (never had) pulseaudio installed in this laptop.

For instance, from https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/f/firefox/

https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/ … pkg.tar.xz
Plays sounds flawlessly.

But the two next versions doesn't.

This has happened with other (previous) versions.

Anyone know which could be the reason?

Thanks a lot.

Last edited by riveravaldez (2021-03-21 18:35:48)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,553

Re: [SOLVED] Only some versions of Firefox have sound (no-pulseaudio)

Because the alsa backend is poorly supported and is broken often. It was even disabled in Arch for a time.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,720

Re: [SOLVED] Only some versions of Firefox have sound (no-pulseaudio)

Mozilla does intend to phase out the ALSA backend for at least a year already, because it is an additional maintenance burden they don't want to take. And recent changes with multiprocessing and per tab sandboxing introduced invasive changes that they aren't going to actively pursue to fix on ALSA's side.

To have a workaround without installing pulseaudio, you should look into apulse .

Last edited by V1del (2018-02-03 11:31:04)

riveravaldez

Member

Registered: 2016-11-18

Posts: 27

Re: [SOLVED] Only some versions of Firefox have sound (no-pulseaudio)

Thanks a lot for both the answers. Marking as solved.